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FOUR: “The Mood of the Sixties”: The Beatles as Artists, 1966–68
- University Press of Mississippi
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126 four “The Mood of the Sixties” The Beatles as Artists, 1966–68 In the post-Beatlemania period following the end of touring, the Beatles attempted to leave behind their show-business image and to make their public image more authentic and consistent with their perceptions of themselves. The Beatles’ new image broke with the “Fab Four” of the Beatlemania years and instead presented them as artists and committed counterculturalists. This chapter examines various aspects of the image that emerged in the mainstream media in the years 1966–68. To be sure, the image created and fostered during the days of Beatlemania continued to exert an influence over perceptions of the band and its importance. In the years following the end of touring , however, notions of the Beatles’ artistic supremacy (compared to other popular music artists) and of their role in the legitimization of pop music as an art form were increasingly important facets of the evolving image, as were perceptions of their leadership of the youth culture. In late 1966 and early 1967, the Beatles set out to destroy their images as lovable moptops. McCartney went so far as to tell the Sunday Times that the Beatles might be breaking up: “Now we Beatles are ready to go our own ways. . . . I’m no longer one of the four mop-tops.” He called his recently debuted mustache “part of breaking up the Beatles. I no longer believe in the image” (“Paul McCartney Predicts” 29). In reality, while the band was willing to leave the the beatles as artists, 1966–68 127 press guessing, by the time of the interview in January 1967, the Beatles were together in the studio in the midst of sessions for their next album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Now, they actively sought to distance themselves from the image that had been part of their phenomenal success. The necessity for change was felt strongly within the band. Thirty years later, McCartney candidly recalled to Barry Miles: “We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top boys approach. We were not boys, we were men. It was all gone, all that boy shit, all that screaming, we didn’t want anymore, plus, we’d now got turned on to pot and thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers ” (Miles 303). That is not to say that the “Fab Four” disappeared immediately or completely. While the Beatles had begun to react to contemporary issues, the teen magazines held fast to the teen idol image of the Beatles. With article titles like “Beatles Personal Letters,” “The Girls Who Invade the Beatles Privacy!,” and “Beatles: What They Really Say About U.S. Teens!,”1 much of the copy of fan magazines remained dedicated to presenting the Beatles as the stuff of female adolescents’ dreams. Emblematic of the approach is the April 1966 issue of Tiger Beat, featuring a letter from a fan to Ringo. Included in the magazine’s “Love Letters to the Stars!” section, the letter declared the writer’s undying love for the drummer: I am writing this letter to you because I know you would love me if you found me so here I am. Just last week I was voted the most popular girl in the school system. All my life I have dreamed of you, and now is my chance to get you (finally)! I am desperate and feel that you should divorce Maureen. I feel that this would be the right move since I am more capable of fulfilling your needs. Please don’t think I am stuck-up; it’s just my love for you shining through. Every Saturday I watch your “Beatles” cartoon show. I don’t [44.200.196.114] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:55 GMT) 128 the beatles as artists, 1966–68 think they are making fun of you like some people. I feel if we were married I could be a valuable addition to the show. I went to your performance in Seattle and when you glanced roughly in my direction I knew you were staring at me with longing eyes. Don’t you remember? All my deepest love and greatest affection, Willa (“Love Letters” 40–41) In the same issue the magazine’s publisher, Charles Laufer, responded to a reader’s letter from the previous issue that had stated that if any Beatle were expendable, it would have to be Ringo...